Water authority approves desalination contract

Those costs will be divvied up in a cost of service study, which the authority expects to complete next year. Some speakers at Thursday’s meeting said that’s too late.

Waving hot pink signs declaring “your responsibility is to us, not to Poseidon,” environmentalists registered their opposition to the project at Thursday’s meeting.

“It’s not respectful to the public to bring forward a project before the ratepayers know what it’s going to cost,” said Marco Gonzalez, an attorney with Coast Law Group. “There’s not one of you today, representing ratepayers, who can turn to your board, turn to your ratepayers, and say what this is going to cost you.”

As a condition of construction, Poseidon plans to restore 66 acres of wetland in the San Diego Bay National Wildlife Refuge to compensate for fish and marine microorganisms killed by the intake at its plant. It will also offset its energy impacts by planting 100,000 trees in Cuyamaca in order to reduce greenhouse gases.

Environmental groups including Surfrider Foundation have sued to block the project, arguing that the mitigation doesn’t fully compensate for the harm the plant would cause to marine life. They are still pursuing appeals.

Conservation organizations including Orange County Coastkeeper and the Oakland-based Pacific Institute released reports this week suggesting that rates for desalinated water could rise more sharply than expected if energy rates spike or natural disasters hamper its operations.

But the San Diego Taxpayers’ Association last week endorsed the project, stating Poseidon bears the brunt of the risk. The water authority pays only for water that the company delivers — not the cost of the plant — and Poseidon is on the hook for any cost overruns.

Poseidon approached the authority with the proposal in 2010 after its plans for a joint project with nine North County cities stalled. Its plant would be on the site of the Encina Power Station in Carlsbad, where cooling intakes would double as seawater intakes for the reverse osmosis operation.

Many speakers, including former Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis, said the time had come to act on the long-standing proposal.

“Let’s stop taking about it and build the damned thing,” Lewis said.

The project’s $840 million bond issue will go before the California Pollution Control Financing Authority for approval Friday. If that agency approves the issue, the bonds could go up for sale in December, and construction could begin in January. The plant is expected to be in operation by 2016.